My Excuses

Today I ran the three-mile fun run for Queens Day in Flushing Meadow Park.

After running one mile at a seven-minute pace, I drank water. I was walking very nicely for 100 metres. After two miles again I started.

At two and a half miles I said, "Go, go!" to Lavanya. At first she didn't see me, because I was so far ahead. Then she went ahead of me.

My timing was better than my best three miles, but when our boys measured the course, it was 100 metres short.

In the morning I had played 30 or 40 games of tennis. Then I took so much exercise. And I hadn't eaten for the previous two days. These are all my excuses why Lavanya finished 100 metres ahead of me.

-6 June 1983




[Source: "My Excuses" in Sri Chinmoy, Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 14, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1985.]